Saturday, January 20, 2018

The WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship completed its Day 1A on Friday night after ten one-hour levels were played at the host venue, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The first day of action was utter success, as it saw 464 entries buy into the tournament.

The $3,500 buy-in event features a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million which was nearly reached on Friday. If Day 1B sees the same and even bigger flow of players willing to join the field, the prize pool will certainly go well beyond the guaranteed money.

Of the 464 entries, only 176 survived through all ten levels to bag and tag for the night. They will return at the host venue on Sunday to play Day 2 on the tournament’s schedule. The Day 1A survivors were topped by Brad Albrinck.

The player accumulated a stack of 236,800 on Friday. He passed the 200,000 chip mark late in the day, after winning an all-in confrontation against a fellow contender at his table. It then did not take long before Albrinck emerged the chip leader.

The player currently has more than $1 million in live tournament winnings. He has accumulated those over the course of the past decade and from as many as 58 live tournaments, according to his HendonMob page. Albrinck scored his largest live cash in late 2016, when he topped the field of the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Cherokee $1,675 Main Event. The player collected $275,877 for his performance.

Who Else Survived Day 1A?

Day 1A of the $3,500 Main Event saw quite some poker stars playing at the tables of the host casinos. Former WPT champions Darren Elias, Matas Cimbolas, and Stefan Schillhabel were among those to make it through the day.

Here it is interesting to note that Schillhabel is coming fresh from a win in the $50,000 buy-in Super High Roller, which took place a few days ago as part of the Lucky Hearts Poker Open festival. The player topped a 25-strong field to collect nearly $500,000.

Other notables to appear on Day 2 of the Championship event include Isaac Haxton, Darryll Fish, Rainer Kempe, and Byron Kaverman. On the other hand, WPT’s very own Tony Dunst, Erik Seidel, and Jason Mercier, who recently parted ways with PokerStars as part of the poker room’s Team Pro, were failed to make it through Day 1A. However, they will all still be able to re-enter the tournament.

Day 1B is set to be played today at the host venue. A total of ten one-hour levels will be played. Registration for the tournament will remain open up until the beginning of Day 2, so the field is likely to expand considerably. This also means that the final prize pool and the places paid will be announced by organizers sometime on Day 2 of the event.